[April] May 2000 [June]

I had arranged through email to meet a local fisherman today, Geoff King, who had offered to show me around Mellwood Lake, south of Memphis. Geoff and I trailered down to DeSoto Lake, about a 2 hour drive from our campground in West Memphis, and launched the boat there. DeSoto and Mellwood are oxbow lakes - they used to be part of the main river channel, but changes in the course of the river over the years have left them now with no current flow but still connected to the river at one end. We drove out of DeSoto Lake, up the river about a mile, and into Mellwood Lake. Here we started catching fish almost immediately. We caught three bass between 2 and 3 pounds on the first bank we fished. Geoff’s purpose here was to show me around this lake though, so instead of staying and catching fish we moved around, fishing more of Geoff’s spots and marking them on my Lowrance LMS160 GPS. After 4 or 5 hours of this, the fishing had become somewhat discouraging, since we hadn’t had another bite since we’d left that first bank this morning. We decided to return to that bank to see if the fish had stopped biting altogether, or whether we had just been into a big a concentration of fish on that first bank. As soon as we got back there the fishing was great. We were pitching a Gambler Bacon Rind and an 8" lizard (both Junebug color) to the base of the trees in about 2 feet of water, and in the next hour we caught 2 three’s, a four, and a five, as well a few smaller fish.

Geoff really put me onto some good fish today, and I’m very appreciative. Thank you, Geoff. Fish like this could win this tournament for me. There is at least one serious consideration, though, and that is that last year the winner of this tournament had to run 60 miles, to Tunica Lake, to get to his fish. Between the wind whipping up 3 foot waves, barge traffic creating huge rollers that effect the river for miles after their passing, and the possibility of hitting a tree or some other object floating just under the surface, a long run on the Mississippi River can be a risky undertaking. If you remember from reading last year’s journal, there were numerous breakdowns, and lots of people who made the 60 mile trip were not able to make it back, with one boat even hitting something and ejecting it’s passengers, almost killing one of them.

The lake we fished today is 110 river miles from Memphis. That’s almost twice as far as Tunica. Once in the lake, between running from one end to the other and bouncing around from spot to spot during the day, I figure I’d be traveling close to 250 miles in the boat on tournament day. Assuming that I could make that run without any equipment failures, or wind/weather problems, then there are two other considerations. The first is that there is nowhere to buy gas on this river - I’d need to calculate how much gas this trip would take and carry it all with me in portable gas cans in the boat. The other is that, allowing for less-than-perfect running conditions, I would need to allocate between 2 and 3 hours of running time each way to get to these fish, leaving only perhaps 3 hours of fishing time. There’d be no time to search for fish on tournament days. I’d need to get here, catch ‘em, and get out.

Annie writes:
Dan & Geoff went fishing. I was on the phone much of the day, making all kinds of appointments, and working on our calendar for next season. Dan did not get home until 8:00, and I just threw together an easy supper for us. He was exhausted from a long day (he’s been gone since 4am) and at least he can sleep a little later tomorrow. He will not be fishing because we have a camper appointment.

Here on the Mississippi River, we did not go out fishing today, but instead caught up on a little sleep, and then made the move back to our original campsite in West Memphis. On the way we stopped off at WalMart to purchase gas cans. I had asked 2 or 3 other guys practicing on Mellwood this week how much gas they thought it would take to get down there and back. They all said first of all that I would not be allowed to have someone bring gas to me, as we had planned on Annie doing. If you need extra gas, they said, you have to carry it with you in the boat. They all were going to top off their boat’s gas tank, and take along an extra 25 or 30 gallons. Well if they’re taking 25 or 30, then I’m taking 35. I have a big boat, a 21 foot Ranger 520, and a big motor, a 225 hp Evinrude. It may burn more fuel than the smaller boats with smaller motors, and even if it doesn’t, I don’t want to be worrying about it. On the other hand, the nice thing about the big boat is all the storage it has. I found out today that I can carry all 35 gallons, that is, seven 5 gallon plastic cans, under cover in the dry storage compartments of my 520. Most of the other guys are going to be figuring out ways to strap these cans to the deck, or be holding them between their legs for 100 miles.

The rest of the day I spent preparing the boat and my equipment for tournament day. I respooled line onto all my reels, and emptied out 90 percent of everything I usually carry in the boat, to lighten the load. All I’m taking with me this week is one box of crankbaits, 2 or 3 spinnerbaits, 2 or 3 buzzbaits, and a little bag with an assortment of soft plastics for pitching and flipping. That and a total of 95 gallons of gasoline.

Annie writes:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!! The phone rang at 6:15am and I was scurrying around in my sleep trying to find it. It was my nephew Brandon, and Mom calling to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day. I called Jeff to wish him a Happy Birthday and we had a very nice talk, we spent about a half hour on the phone. We also called Dan’s Mom to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. She is in New Hampshire right now with Dan’s brother’s family. We moved our campsite back to it’s original spot which is in West Memphis, and I went out to run a few errands. Later we visited with John and Laraine for a while, and then got to bed fairly early.

I arrived at 5:30, just as it was getting light out. I was the first one there, launched the boat and set out for the north end of the lake under perfect conditions. The baitfish were active everywhere, and the bass and gar were tearing them up all along the banks in just 6 inches of water. For some reason the water in this lake had come up a little bit since Saturday, even though it is dropping rapidly up around Memphis, and the fish are really like this. I decided that I was going to jerk (set the hook) on maybe half of the fish that bit this morning, since I was fishing obvious shallow cover that was sure to be fished by many other fishermen over the course of the next two days, which are the final two practice days. Usually in the last couple of practice days you don’t want to actually catch fish, but simply locate them. I figured that my jerking on some this morning would not only tell me the quality of the fish in various areas of the lake right now, but also may dissuade those same fish from biting for other fishermen later in the day. If they don’t bite for the other guys, maybe those same guys won’t come back on Wednesday.

Anyway, by jerking on only half of my bites, here’s how my morning went: By 8:30am I had caught a limit that weighed around 15 pounds. By 10am my arm hurt from jerking on big fish. I had caught two 5 pounder’s, one 4, and numerous 3’s. It was perhaps the best fishing I have ever experienced, and at the end of 4 hours I knew exactly what to look for to catch a big one. I could simply drive down the bank until I found the right combination of water depth, bank composition, and wood cover, and I could pull in to that spot and catch a big fish seemingly on command. It was just awesome, and by 10:30 I had had enough - I didn’t want to hurt them any more. Was it worth getting up at 2:30am for? You bet it was! The two hour drive home I spent saying countless thank-you prayers, and planning out my winner’s speech for on stage - the fishing was that good. If it stays that way until Wednesday, I am going to win this tournament.

Annie writes:
Dan left the house at 2:30am and did not expect me to go out with him, thank God! I did laundry and worked on the computer, and all of a sudden Dan showed up back at the campground at 2pm. I thought something was wrong with his boat. But no, instead he was so excited, he really caught them good today and he came home to tell me all about it. He was going to go back out fishing somewhere nearby, but got caught up working on his tackle and stuff here so he didn’t, which is good. I washed the truck and the boat, and Dan cooked us dinner, and we went to visit John & Laraine for dessert which was a delicious pie that Laraine had made.

The weather report for the rest of the week is calling for clear skies, temperatures in the mid 80’s, and south winds 15-20 mph. A south wind is supposedly the worst, since it is opposite the flow of the river, and results in the worst wave conditions. I am thinking that a south wind of 25 mph is about where I will draw the line - that is, not make the run down to Mellwood. Since predicted conditions appear to be favorable, though, at this time all systems are GO for the "Memphis 500", as I have begun to call it since it will involve racing 250 miles both on Wednesday and again on Thursday. Beyond that is a question mark, since I’m not sure the Top 10 qualifiers will be allowed to carry extra gas on Friday and Saturday.

Unfortunately, the water in the river is dropping faster than anyone even predicted. There is talk now that Tunica Lake may even be closed off from the main river and not accessible by Wednesday. Supposedly you can still get into Tunica when the Memphis gauge is reading zero, but the prediction for Wednesday is between zero and minus one, and even lower for Thursday. This is not good, since Tunica is where 50 percent of the tournament boats are planning to fish. There are no lakes or chutes upriver that are accessible right now, so if the guys can’t get into Tunica, then they’re going to go on down to DeSoto and Mellwood. This is not good at all!

Annie writes:
Dan went out fishing for a little bit this morning, and I got our clothes ready for tonight and made his lunch for tomorrow. We went to the registration meeting, and had a great dinner which they provided for us. Dan met his partner who seemed very nice, he was from Florida. We got home and once again went to Laraine’s for some more delicious pie.

There was only a moderate breeze this morning, which allowed us, once we got underway, to run at WOT (Wide Open Throttle) for the majority of the ride down. This was the first real test of the CITGO boat on a long run and in rough water, and it performed far beyond expectations. In fact, my Ranger 520, powered by an Evinrude 225 and carrying two passengers and 95 gallons of gasoline, passed 25 of the boats that started out ahead of us this morning, and covered 110 miles of the Mississippi River in 1 hour and 47 minutes. That is an AVERAGE speed of 62 mph, even past the dozen or so barges that were encountered, around the countless twists and turns, and through the long, windblown straight-aways.

The exhilaration of the ride, and the delight at having finally arriving at our intended destination, were quickly tempered by what we encountered as soon as we passed through the narrow chute that led into Mellwood Lake. Everywhere you looked there were tournament boats, already beating the banks with spinnerbaits and crankbaits and flipping and pitching to every laydown tree and stickup. The lake is 5 to 7 miles long and as I made my way to the far end, past the two trees that I had wanted to be the first boat on, I realized that there must be 40 boats in here already this morning. It was quite discouraging, after all of my planning and practicing, and after choosing to take what we considered a huge gamble to come this far to fish, to end up having to fish in a crowd this size.

I continued all the way up to the north end, hoping against hope that there was no one sitting on my number one spot, but of course there was. I pulled in as close as I could get, but remaining a respectful distance away from the guy who was there ahead of me, and shut down my engine. After sitting in the cockpit and piloting one of these boats for 2 solid hours, you have to be careful when you first get up and walk to the front of the boat. Legs, feet, and backside all have a tendency to get numb through this ordeal, and I would not have been the first person to fall out of the boat at this time, had I indeed done so. I managed to stay upright, though, and get down to the task of fishing.

All of the fish I had caught in this lake had been shallow - 2 feet or less, so even though the water had fallen considerably since Monday when I was last here, I wanted to at least start my fishing today real shallow. Fortunately, the boat that was on my spot, which consisted of four laydown trees along a bank perhaps 50 yards long, was fishing out deeper, and when he didn’t catch anything off the deep end of the trees he moved on and allowed me to move in. As soon as we did, and began throwing at the shallow end of the trees, my partner caught a small keeper fish off the first tree. I then caught a pound and a half fish off the second tree, and immediately after a 2 pound fish off the third tree. Another boat was approaching the fourth tree from the other side, and as he appeared to be just slightly closer to it than me, I let him have it. Sure enough, he caught a good 3 pound fish off of that fourth tree. That’s four fish in four trees - I did have a good little spot, after all. We worked that area pretty hard for a while, but caught no more fish. We did see other boats around us catch fish, though.

Since this was only one of many spots where I had caught fish in practice, we moved around a lot in the next couple of hours. Nothing else worked though, and it was dismaying to see so many other boats in this lake, and know that there was not a single piece of cover left that had not been fished by other boats numerous times already today. Not only that, but aside from in that one area where we had originally started, we had not seen any other boats catching a fish today. We returned to that original spot, broadened our search on both sides a bit, and my partner caught his second fish of the day.

That was all we had time for today, which is disappointing. On any other day, 2 bites in here would have weighed 6 or 7 pounds. My two bites today weighed 3.3, and my partner’s were even smaller. That was just plain bad luck, though. The bigger fish are here, and I saw other boats catch some, both early in the day and later when we came back. The only fish I saw caught though were up at this north end, so I made the decision today that if I come back tomorrow, I am going to camp out up here and not run around so much.

We made the long run back in two hours and 10 minutes, with about 10 minutes to spare. That’s cutting it pretty close for a long run like that. The wind was stronger, and we were fighting the current the whole way back, but there was still no real difficulty getting back; it was just such a long way. In fact, it proved to be too long for some of the boats. I counted 6 or 7 boats on the way back that had had some kind of problem, either run out of gas or broken down, and been tied to channel marker buoys and abandoned. The only way you can come to the scales to weigh fish in these tournaments is to come back in your own boat, or to get a ride back in another competitor’s boat. If you break down out there and you’re pressed for time, you tie your boat up and flag down another competitor. If they are headed back to the weigh-in, though not obligated to, most of the time they will transport you and your fish back to the scales. (You’re on your own going back to retrieve your boat, though, and this process often lasts well into the nighttime hours and really lets you know who your friends are.) Anyway, one of the abandoned boats we passed today looked funny, and it wasn’t until I was almost past it that I realized that it had no engine. Turns out it was Tommy Biffle, and I don’t know what the cause was but his entire engine had come off the boat and sunk to the bottom of the river. I understand he had been hurt some in the ordeal also, but he did attend the weigh-in and in fact weighed over 15 pounds of fish.

Back at the weigh-in, Annie was just glad to see me back safely, fish or no-fish. Our arrangement had been this: I took the cell phone with me today. If I had difficulties out there, I would call, aside from the tournament directors to let them know, the Hobbie’s cell phone, and if I couldn’t through to the Hobbies, then I would call our own number and leave a message on our answering machine. So periodically throughout the day Annie had been using the Hobbie’s phone to call our answering machine, hoping not to hear my voice with a message saying that I was broken down somewhere, or even worse, hurt.

My two fish today weighed a little over three pounds. We were disappointed, but not discouraged. It turns out that only a few people who made that run all the way down to Mellwood today caught ‘em very good. And I for one, having fished Mellwood 5 days in practice and having experienced both good days and bad there, know that tomorrow we could have a totally different experience. Also - the takeoff numbers are reversed tomorrow, so there is every reason to believe that I could be the first boat in there in the morning. That is something to be optimistic about. I’m no longer talking about winning this tournament, as I was a few days ago, but I do think that I can still post a respectable finish.

After the weigh-in Annie and I attended the Fellowship of Christian Anglers meeting, held right there in the weigh-in tent. We have been talking between ourselves lately about how we feel that we want to become more active in and conscious of our religious beliefs. This being the first time we have attended this meeting, is a start towards that end.

Following that meeting, we proceeded not home, but a half hour in the other direction to the Ranger and OMC service trailers. During the long run back today I had had a "Check Engine" light come on twice, and though I am fairly confident that there is nothing wrong, with the stakes as high as they are and the severe strains we are putting these boats and motors under, I felt that I had to go over, get in line with who-knows-how-many other guys, and have it checked out by the professionals. This we did, and we were fortunate in that we could just drop the boat off and go out for a pizza with a couple of other CITGO guys, Brian and Chuck. After dinner we retrieved the boat, and yes, it was just a faulty sensor, and they said I could ignore it if it happened again tomorrow. They would take the time to swap it out later this weekend if needed.

When we finally arrived back at the campground, around 11pm, we found that Cooper had been kidnapped and was being held hostage by the Hobbies. We went over to retrieve him, and finally made it to bed at around 11:30.

By the way, for this round trip of approximately 240 miles, almost all of at wide open throttle, my Evinrude outboard with Ficht Ram Injection burned 75 gallons of gasoline. That averages out to be 3.2 miles per gallon - pretty good for a 225 hp engine pushing a heavily loaded boat.

Annie writes:
Dan took the phone with him today and we made a deal that if he has no fish, or breaks down, he will call Laraine’s phone for me to go pick him up. I am not usually nervous at tournaments, but I am very concerned about this one. I went to lunch with a few other wives at the Peabody Hotel and then we went back to our campers. Still no call from Dan, that’s a good sign. We went to the weigh in and Dan was not due in until last flight. It was very nerve-racking as people were coming in saying how many boats were broken down and how bad it was. I finally saw Dan and boy was I relieved. He only had 2 fish, but by this time I was just thankful he was safe. After the weigh in is when it bothered me that we did not have much weight to start tomorrow off with. We stayed at the weigh in tent for their Christian Anglers Meeting, and felt good that we did. Afterwards, we had to go to the service trailer, and so we left from the weigh in and went right over. While they were working on our boat we went out to dinner with 2 other guys from CITGO, Brian and Chuck. We had a very nice dinner, then went to pick up our boat and went home. It was 11:45 when we drove in the yard. Not long before Dan has to get up for Day 2 of the tournament. When we opened the door to our camper Cooper was not there, then I hear this bark and realized he was at John & Laraine’s house. They had felt bad for him so had come over to get him so that he could play with their dog, Kasie.

At the launch ramp at 5am, the wind only seemed to be getting worse. I told my partner that since we were launching in a protected area, we would just have to wait until we were out on the river before making the GO/NO GO decision. He had made the long run yesterday, and understood the risks, and also what was at stake, and agreed to go along with my decision. Dick, though he had caught the Mellwood fish with me in practice and seen the quality, had decided days ago that his equipment was just not reliable enough to be put to this test, and had committed himself to fishing the mouth of Brandywine Creek. Today he was glad he made that decision, for there is no way he would have attempted to make the 110 mile ride this morning.

We took off at 6:30, boat number 19 this time. 10 miles down, into one of the roughest sections of the river, I acknowledged that it wasn’t that bad - the wind was not going to prevent us from getting down to our lake. Getting back might be a different story, but we’ll worry about that when the time comes. The ride was rougher than yesterday, but we made it down in a little over 2 hours, and were perhaps the 3rd boat in the lake today. I ran all the way to the back without stopping, and got right on to my four special trees from yesterday. Today they were not so quick to give up fish to us, though. The water continues to fall, and less and less of these trees remain in the water as the days go by. I eventually caught my first fish, a pound and a half, off of one of them after about an hour of fishing. It was apparent though that these trees were not going to give up any more, and another boat had just caught a fish out in front of the trees, so I decided to back off and spread out once again. I began throwing a fat, shallow diving chartreuse crankbait, and never moved more than a couple of hundred yards away. My first crankbait fish weighed about 2 1/2 pounds, and on the very next cast I caught a four pounder. I now had 3 fish that weighed 8 pounds, which when added to my 3 1/2 from yesterday may be enough to get me a check here, but I knew that one more would guarantee it. A half hour later I caught him, a solid 3 pounder, on the crankbait.

We left to start the long ride back at 12:10. We were due in at 3:00, and the wind was blowing much stronger this afternoon. There were two sections of the river that were real bad, but most of it you just had to pay real close attention and constantly be changing your speed and course to match the conditions. These are the times when having a foot throttle in your boat really pays off - being able to adjust your speed while keeping both hands on the wheel is a huge asset under conditions like these.

The ride back was long, wet, and physically grueling. At one point I glanced over at my partner and saw that the knuckles on his hand were bloody from banging around and trying to hold on. As for my own hands, one of the fingers in my left hand went numb, from gripping the steering wheel I suppose, and as I write parts of this story now, 3 days later, it has not yet fully recovered. We made it back with only 8 minutes to spare. Again, this is cutting it way to close for a long ride like that, and I should have left even earlier than I did, especially when I knew I had enough fish to guarantee me a check. I’m lucky that that mental mistake didn’t cost me.

But anyway we made it back, I had 4 fish that weighed just about 11 pounds, so that made 14.2 over 2 days, and I ended up 48th overall. Annie and I are both satisfied with that, especially since I was in 100-something’th place after yesterday, and we know that we will be able to leave the "Memphis 500" knowing that we did a good job.

One final comment, about gambling and taking risks and doing whatever it takes to win out here on the pro trail: I do not know of any angler who had ever run this far, over 110 miles, to get to their fish in a tournament. And yet there were at least 75 of us who did it here for the first time. Amazing. But what is even more unbelievable is that some of the guys went even further. Was it worth it? You be the judge: At least 2 of the guys who made the Top 10 cut were driving all the way to Lake Whittington, 180 miles away, to fish for only one hour each day!

Annie writes:
Today was even windier than yesterday so we decided to stay by the phone. I went to pick up Elaine at her house and we brought back a picnic lunch which we ate in her motorhome. Dan did not call, so that is another good sign. We went to the weigh in and at least I don’t have to wait long for Dan, he is in the 1st flight today and came in with 4 nice fish, I was so excited, I think that will give us a check. YES! WE DID IT, thanks to everyone who was pulling for us here and worked so hard to help us do good. We were both very pleased with this finish and it makes for a much more enjoyable ride home to NH. After the weigh-in we took the boat back to the service trailers, where they swapped out the bad sensor that was causing Dan’s "Check Engine" light to come on. Later, CITGO took us all out to dinner and it was absolutely delicious. We ate very well and had a good time. One of our CITGO guys is in the Top 10 for tomorrow. William Fletcher, this is his home town, so we are excited for him. We got home once again at 11:45pm. Another long day, but worth it. We fell into bed knowing we could sleep a little later tomorrow.

Right before the weigh-in started they had Dan and I go up on stage, where they showed one of our TV commercials and Dan talked to the audience for a minute about this journal. They also held a drawing for free gasoline, race tickets, and a remote control boat. Geoff King, Shelley and their kids were here for the weigh-in, and Shelley even won one of the drawings.

After the weigh in we left Memphis and started the long drive (1300 miles) back to NH. We drove about 60 miles, found a CITGO station and decided to stop there for the night.